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University plans for new on-campus apartments

A conceptual view of the new student residence hall

Sacramento State is moving forward with plans to build new apartment-style on-campus housing for students, a significant step in its effort to become a more residential campus. The new housing is expected to be built by mid-2009 and be ready for students to move into by that fall.

The plan, which is being presented to the California State University Board of Trustees this week, calls for adding housing for 600 students and boosting the overall number of students living on campus to more than 1,700. The 185,000 square-foot facility would be built on the site of the existing Foley Hall, which would be demolished.

“Foley is one of many ‘red brick’ residence halls built throughout the CSU system in the late 50s and early 60s,” says Cynthia Cockrill, director of Housing and Residential Life. “But we’ve come full circle and are now planning for the construction of new housing which brings an alternative to Sac State students. It meets a real need and desire of our students and fits nicely with the University’s Destination 2010 initiative.”

The new facility is seen as the first phase of a multi-year solution to offering more on-campus student housing. Efforts are also underway to add additional near-campus student housing as well as near-campus housing for faculty and staff.

An architectural team from MVE Institutional, Inc. worked with a campus committee to develop the preliminary concepts for the new facility. The financing plan calls for it to be self-funded utilizing state revenue bonds.

With Trustee approval this week, the campus will begin reviewing “design-and-build” proposals. The team that is chosen will be expected to have schematic designs and a final budget ready to seek Trustee approval in May.

The new facility will offer a variety of five bedroom, single occupancy and two bedroom, double occupancy suites. Each unit will have its own bathroom or bathrooms, a living area, a food prep area and furnishings.

Preliminary plans include a community/study space on each floor, a large program area on the first floor, conference facilities including a multimedia training room, space for support programs, laundry facility as well as some retail. Conceptual outlines also include a courtyard/recreation area with benches, gazebos and barbecues.

Demolition for Foley Hall is set for the summer of 2007, and is expected to take about three months. The building currently houses office space for a variety of programs, and those offices will be relocated to other parts of campus.

The campus explored restoring Foley Hall to student use, but it needed so much work that doing so wasn’t cost effective.

A high-resolution image of the concept drawings of the housing facility is available at www.csus.edu/news/imagedownload. Media assistance is available by contacting Sacramento State Public Affairs at 278-6156.